In addition to affordability, New York City's mayor-elect will be forced to reckon with the NYPD's sweeping mass surveillance operations. New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani may have an ambitious policy agenda, but overhauling the self-governing and deeply dysfunctional behemoth that is the New York City Police Department is not on the list. Mamdani surprised supporters by asking current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on after his inauguration early next year. Tisch, a technocrat heir to a vast real estate fortune, clashes with Mamdani on several fronts, including policy (she believes New York State's bail reforms caused rising crime) and the geopolitics that inevitably make their way into New York City's streets. One area where Mamdani is guaranteed to clash with Tisch is on the NYPD's massive technical surveillance apparatus and intelligence-gathering methods, which have metastasized since 9/11 to levels that rival the capabilities of a midsize country.

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San Bruno police posted a photo of a Waymo and a dilemma, writing: 'Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn't be issued.' San Bruno police posted a photo of a Waymo and a dilemma, writing: 'Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn't be issued.' San Bruno officers pull over Waymo but say a ticket wasn't issued, as'citation books don't have a box for "robot"' If a driver makes an illegal U-turn, but no one is behind the wheel, does the car still get a ticket? A police department in California grappled with this existential question last week. During a DUI enforcement operation, officers in San Bruno pulled over a car without anyone behind the wheel after the autonomous vehicle made an illegal U-turn at a light.

Plus: Microsoft has stopped letting Israel use its technology for surveillance. Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company has announced. Potential customers include businesses trying to curb shoplifting. If the security team at a store sees shoplifters leave, they can activate a camera-equipped drone. "The drone follows the people. The people get in a car. You click a button and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car," says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock's drone program.

Flock Safety is pitching its police-style drone program to private businesses. It could bring aerial surveillance to shopping centers, warehouses, and hospitals. Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company announced today, with potential customers including including businesses intent on curbing shoplifting. Companies in the US can now place Flock's drone docking stations on their premises. If the company has a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly beyond visual line of sight (these are becoming easier to get), its security team can fly the drones within a certain radius, often a few miles. "Instead of a 911 call [that triggers the drone], it's an alarm call," says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock's drone program.

The new president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, Teresa Sánchez-Gordon, is a former L.A. County judge who says her upbringing in an undocumented family gives her a unique perspective on the current challenges facing the LAPD.

This delayed impact of actions is prevalent in the real world.

Once best known for developing the Taser, Axon has transformed into a 50 billion military and law enforcement tech giant.Mother Jones illustration; Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Zuma; Arthur Ogleznev/Unsplash; Logan Weaver/Unsplash In April 2024, the American police tech firm Axon, which leads the market for police body cameras, released a tool it billed as "revolutionary": Draft One, an AI-powered software package that would turn body camera footage and audio into intelligible police reports. Once best known for developing the Taser, Axon has transformed into a 50 billion military and law enforcement tech giant, providing more than 5,000 police departments across the country with a suite of cloud-based products to manage evidence collection and storage. Draft One, the AI tool, connects with the company's body cameras and evidence storage service to write police reports with little human intervention. At least 21 departments have experimented with the software. The use of artificial intelligence in generating police reports has been particularly troubling, according to civil rights advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU, because of generative AI's propensity towards racial and gender bias, and its tendency to insert inaccuracies into texts--including wholesale inventions known by technologists as "hallucinations." "I can almost guarantee [AI] reports have been used in plea deals," a police captain wrote.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Tesla's roughly 7,000-pound stainless steel Cybertruck may not have sold particularly well among the general public, but it does appear to have found a receptive audience in one particular cohort: law enforcement. Police departments across the US--and as far away as the Qatar--have been spotted driving the electric behemoth. Now, a jet-black, militarized Cybertruck is reportedly among the vehicles set to respond to potential incidents during 2026 World Cup matches taking place in Jalisco, Mexico. Officials from the central state of Jalisco said this week that several Cybertrucks will be among 300 new tactical, armored vehicles added to its fleet. The move, first reported by the Jalisco-based newspaper El Informador, is part of a broader effort to revamp the state's police force in preparation for the influx of tourists expected to visit the capitol, Guadalajara, for World Cup matches next year.